Monthly Archives: May 2017
5 Things We Learned About Marvel’s Defenders Comic
Writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist David Marquez have been working at the forefront of the Marvel Universe in the past couple years, first establishing a new status quo for Tony Stark in Invincible Iron Man and then tearing the Avengers down the middle in Civil War II. For their next collaboration, Bendis and Marquez are delivering a new take on the Defenders, one that clearly shares a few things in common with the upcoming Netflix show.
Marvel held one of their "Next Big Thing" press calls on Tuesday to shed more light on the new Defenders comic. Both Bendis and Marquez were in attendance, as was Executive Editor Tom Brevoort. Check out this preview art Marvel provided, and then scroll down to find out what was revealed during the call and why fans shouldn't assume this book is a simple cash-in on the Netflix series.
Arkane’s Answer to Lack of Prey PC Demo: Use Steam Refunds
Arkane co-director Raphael Colantonio has responded to controversy about the lack of a PC demo for Prey, encouraging players to take advantage of Steam's refund policy instead.
The demo is made up of the first hour of the game - a move many (including IGN's Dan Stapleton) have praised - but is only available on the game's console release platforms.
Speaking to AusGamers, Colantonio explained the reasoning for the missing demo, and his thoughts on how Steam's refund policy - which allows players to try up to 2 hours of a game, and claim a full refund - makes up for it:
7 Star Wars Projects That Never Saw the Light of Day
May the 4th be with you! This month will mark the 40th anniversary of the original Star Wars movie, which of course went on to become a massive franchise far beyond anyone’s dreams. After the box office success of A New Hope and the transformation of Star Wars into a cultural phenomenon way back when, George Lucas indicated that he had some very ambitious plans for both a prequel trilogy and a sequel trilogy. Of course, only the prequels emerged as a finished project under his direction, leaving the rest as an unrealized dream until 2015’s The Force Awakens.
However, that’s nothing new for the Star Wars franchise. Over the past four decades, many intriguing plans have been laid out for that universe, and some of them barely made it past the development stages. So in honor of May the 4th, we’re looking back at seven of the cancelled Star Wars films, television shows and even video games that deserved -- but never got -- a chance to show us new sides of that galaxy far, far away.
Exo One Is a Sci-Fi Cocktail of Journey, Tiny Wings, and Marble Madness
Adelaide-based Exbleative has revealed its new sci-fi, momentum-based exploration game: Exo One. The game has been announced alongside a modest Kickstarter campaign to help finish it.
Exo One will outline the story of humanity’s first (and apparently ill-fated) mission outside of the solar system. Players will helm a bizarre, spherical alien vehicle that can roll at high speeds across the alien landscapes, manipulate gravity to gain extra momentum on downslopes, and squish into a disc shape to soar up into the clouds.
Developer Jay Weston notes the game has already been described by some as a cross between Journey and 2001: A Space Odyssey. After a hands-on with the first two planets it seems like a fairly sound assessment.
Comic Book Reviews for May 3, 2017
It was another big week of comics. DC continued the Batman/Flash crossover "The Button" and launched the print version of their Injustice 2 prequel comic. Marvel debuted several promising new series with Secret Empire #1, Jean Grey #1, Black Bolt #1 and All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #1. And Image kicked off the latest incarnation of Youngblood and a new fantasy series called Eternal Empire.
Scroll down to check out our reviews for these and various other new releases, and be sure to let us know your favorite books of the week in the comments below.
Note: We'll have reviews for Nova #6, Spider-Man/Deadpool #17 and X-Men Gold #3 up a bit later today.
DC COMICS
StarCraft Source Code Discovered, Fan Rewarded for Returning it to Blizzard
Blizzard has showered a fan in rewards after the return of a lost gold master source code disc for the original 1998 StarCraft.
As spotted by Kotaku, Reddit user Khemist49 had purchased a "Box of Blizzard stuff" off eBay which happened to contain a disc marked "StarCraft Gold Master Source Code". Unsure what to do with the seemingly valuable object, he turned to Reddit for answers and, after having some users request the code be made freely available or to sell it, was contacted by Blizzard's legal team.
Xbox Scorpio Dev Kit Has a Frame Rate Counter Mini-Screen
We got a glimpse of the sleek Xbox Scorpio development kit last month, but a new video shows it in action - including its LCD screen with frame rate counter.
Windows Central's Jez Corden revealed the video on Twitter, confirming speculation that the front-facing panel was a screen of some kind:
Scorpio dev kit, kinda sexy no? #ProjectScorpio pic.twitter.com/o1FLT6Siv8
— Jez Corden (@JezCorden) May 3, 2017
This VR Game Takes You Inside Your Brain
VR has sent me to interesting places before - piloting starships, climbing mountains, even into cartoon shows I like - but I’ve yet to encounter anything that elicited a Keanu-esque “whoa” - at least, not until I dove into Charm Studios upcoming game FORM.
My demo started innocuously enough - I was in a fairly standard laboratory with high concrete walls, corrugated metal ceilings and equipment trapped somewhere in time between the late 1970s and today. Then, after a few “get comfy” tasks acclimating me to my virtual body, I was hurled into one of the strangest, most intriguing virtual spaces I’ve seen in any VR experience yet.
Gears of War Movie to Be Written by Avatar 2 Screenwriter
Universal Pictures has found a writer for its upcoming adaptation of the Gears of War movie.
IGN can confirm that Shane Salerno has been tapped to write the Gears of War screenplay. Salerno is credited as a writer on the four Avatar sequels currently heading into production.
The Coalition's Rod Fergusson confirmed last year that Universal Pictures had optioned the rights to adapt the Gears of War franchise for film, with Planet of the Apes series producer Dylan Clark, who gave an update on the film last year, on board to produce, as is Ted's Scott Stuber, via Universal's Bluegrass Films division.
Aquaman Logo Revealed as DC Film Starts Production
Warner Bros. has released the official logo for its Aquaman solo film to celebrate the start of production.
The film's logo sports the iconic Trident, with bold white lettering. Check out the image below. Director James Wan also recently shared a photo from the film's set to mark the first day of filming.
Aquaman logo.